14. Christmas is coming ...

I once was accused of wanting a 'warm, fuzzy feeling' from the celebration of Christmas. Yes! Unashamedly! It is, after all, supposed to be a season of 'great joy'! Yet all around me I see and hear exhortations to spend more money, dress up more glamorously, entertain more lavishly. There is a large amount of stress involved, it seems, and the goodwill it should engender is lost amid the feelings of compulsion, competition and conformity.
I am just as guilty as the next person!  There was a time when Christmas at my house had to be picture-book perfect. If any of my plans went awry, I got very upset; considering my celebration short of the mark, and myself to have failed. Now (since my stroke), although I still spend far too much, I have simpler pleasures, and very different values. For example, wishing some-one 'Good Health' now is a much more meaningful sentiment, and although it was always important to me to spend Christmas surrounded by my family - now I feel that importance more keenly.
So are we all in search of that 'warm, fuzzy feeling'? Maybe. And where is the joy?
At the risk of sticking my head above the parapet again, I suggest that the temptation is to spend our way to comfort and joy! What is in fact a religious  festival, celebrating the birth of a baby who grew up to be - for many of us anyway - God, has become another example of  paying homage to the gods 'retail' and 'advertising'. I suspect that that's what my accuser was getting-at! I now see more clearly, but whether that is because of my age or because of the stroke - who knows?
I shall still aim for that 'warm, fuzzy feeling', but in my efforts to celebrate the birth of Christ, I will strive not to become a slave to those other gods.